Chef to leave Trio for own `evolution'

Phil Vettel, Tribune restaurant criticCHICAGO TRIBUNE

Chef Grant Achatz, who became a nationally recognized culinary figure in his three years of running four-star Trio, will leave the Evanston restaurant at the end of July to begin work on his own establishment.

Following a course laid out by his predecessors--founding chefs Rick Tramonto and Gale Gand, who went on to create Tru, and chef Shawn McClain, who opened Spring and Green Zebra--Achatz will leave the North Shore to create a high-profile restaurant in Chicago.

"Being downtown is something that's always intrigued me," Achatz said. "It's going to be nice to finally realize a vision I've had since I was 14 years old."

The restaurant will be called Alinea and will have 65 seats. Its address is unknown.

"We're still undecided on three locations," Achatz said.

The cuisine will be "a continuing evolution of what we've started at Trio," said Achatz, 30, who at Trio challenged diners with "deconstructed" dishes, reassembled in novel ways--the components of root beer applied to prime beef, for example--and ones that involved diner participation, such as red mullet surrounded by various condiments, meant to be sampled one by one to gauge the effect each brought to the fish.

Achatz was named to Food & Wine magazine's Best New Chefs in America list in 2002. He was named the Rising Star Chef of the Year by the James Beard Foundation in 2003.

Though Alinea is not expected to make its debut until early 2005, Achatz's last day at Trio will be July 31.

"The energies that have to be outpoured in a new opening are tremendous," Achatz said. "I felt that trying to maintain Trio's four stars while opening a new restaurant would be spreading myself too thin."

Trio owner Henry Adaniya, while joking about his restaurant's tendency to nurture star-quality chefs who eventually strike out on their own, says he's looking forward to Trio's next iteration.

Adaniya said he will close Trio for two weeks, beginning Aug. 1, for renovations and reconstruction relating to Trio's fourth generation.

"I'm still finalizing my deals, but we'll be releasing information on July 1," he said. "It will be a dramatic contrast to what we're doing now, and there will be a good amount of surprise to what I'm bringing forward."

Adaniya has not announced the name of Trio's new chef, but he said "it will be a local name, a budding talent."